Braided garlic and more

My garlic had been sitting outside drying, waiting for me to take care of it. Today I trimmed the roots off, peeled the outer skin layer, and braided them. I probably waited to long before I dug them up, as some were starting to go bad in the ground. Most of the garlic was okay. Next year it should be easier for me to tell when it is time to dig them up as the bulbs will be planted in the right season. They are very tasty and I have been cooking with them for the last couple of weeks.

We ate the first bell pepper out of our garden. I had never gotten one to grow before this time. Lee and I both agreed that it had a better taste than the ones in store. It was very crisp and juicy when you bite into it. Now I am in a quandary about whether to plant them next year as I had almost decided not too. I was thinking next year of planting mainly hot peppers and buying my regular peppers in the store.

The sunflowers are getting ready to bloom out. These are a Snack Mix sunflower. So after they get done blooming, if I manage to save any from the birds, I will have sunflower seeds to eat. We are thinking about letting the birds get most of them, but covering one sunflower head with a bag so we can collect seed for next years planting.

Here is one of our plant failures this year. This is Double Color Amaranth. I planted a whole row of it but only a few seeds sprouted. Lee was disappointed. He wanted grain amaranth but this was what he got instead since the store didn’t have it. It is used like a lettuce or for its ornamental quality.

My pumpkin has turned orange in the last 11 days since I wrote about it. I don’t think that pumpkins believe in doing anything slow.

Lee’s buckwheat is blooming away. He is hoping to harvest the seeds. I always forget that it is a grain as it looks nothing like a wheat stalks.

Overall I am pretty happy with how the garden is coming along. Lee has gotten really frustrated a few time thinking that nothing was going to grow. Somethings haven’t done well and others have been fine. I tell him not to worry as every year in the garden it will be different. Some things you can change to make plants happier and other things you can’t.

Soon we will be (or already are) overflowing with more beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, greens, corn, and lettuce then we will know what to do with. It is very exciting as each new vegetable comes into season.